Cheshire Trial Postponed Until Wednesday

The trial of Steven Hayes has been postponed until Wednesday. Sources said Sunday that Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue is in the hospital.

The trial had been scheduled to resume this morning after concerns about the health of Steven Hayes prompted a judge to halt testimony Friday.

Hayes' defense attorneys said Hayes, after suffering "seizure-like" symptoms Wednesday night, was not able to participate in the second-half of Thursday's proceedings, cutting short testimony from state police Sgt. Karen Gabianelli, the fourteenth witness to testify so far in the state's death penalty case against Hayes.

Prosecutors did not object to Judge Jon C. Blue's decision.

Wednesday morning at the courthouse will likely be a repeat of last week. Crowds of reporters, members of the victims' family and friends and curious spectators will line up at the entrance before the start of court hoping to get a seat in the gallery that holds about 120 people.

Gabianelli is expected to pick up where she left off Friday, when she testified about finding rope, nylon and a scarf tied to the posts of beds in the bedrooms of the Petit home.

Gabianelli testified that police believed the ties were used to restrain Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, before they were killed during a home invasion at their Cheshire home July 23, 2007.

Gabianelli told jurors that police found evidence of accelerants on the floors of the home and items belonging to the Petit family in a truck Hayes had been borrowing. Police also found three stacks of cash totaling $15,000 that bank officials testified Hawke-Petit said she needed to pay off intruders who were holding her family hostage. Hawke-Petit was forced to withdraw the money after one of the intruders dropped her off at the bank and then picked her up after she was given the cash.

The money was discovered inside the vehicle the suspects used to flee the Petit home, Gabianelli testified.

State police Det. Anthony Buglione could also testify. Buglione testified during a pre-trial hearing in July that he interviewed Hayes for about an hour and 10 minutes at the Cheshire police station in the immediate aftermath of the home invasion, robbery, kidnapping, arson and triple killing.

Hayes' defense attorneys unsuccessfully argued during the pre-trial hearings that Hayes' oral statement ÃÆÃâÃâÃâ transcribed from three pages of handwritten notes taken by Buglione ÃÆÃâÃâÃâ should not be admissible at trial because it was not tape-recorded.

Buglione testified that Hayes read over the notes and signed them as being accurate. Buglione has also said that he read Miranda rights twice to Hayes during the interview at the Cheshire police station. He said Hayes talked freely and was never threatened or pressured and instead was offered pizza and use of the bathroom. Buglione said Hayes appeared coherent and said he understood his rights.

At one point in the interview, Buglione testified during the July hearing, Hayes said he wanted to talk to a lawyer and asked how much a lawyer would cost. When Buglione said he did not know, Hayes said, "Just forget it," Buglione testified. Hayes then agreed to resume his conversation with police. When told later that his comments would be tape-recorded, Hayes refused to speak further and the interview ended.

Hayes, 47, of Winsted, and another man, Joshua Komisarjevksy,30, of Cheshire, both recent parolees at the time of the crime, face capital felony and multiple murder, kidnapping, rape and arson charges in the beating of Dr. William Petit Jr. and the killings of his wife and two daughters.

Petit testified last week about the brutal beating he suffered in the home invasion. Petit, who lost a large amount of blood after being beaten in the head during the assault, said he was in and out of consciousness and thrown down in the basement where the intruders tied him to a pole. Petit managed to escape the home, which was set on fire after the break in, and alerted a neighbor.

Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, died of smoke inhalation. Hawke-Petit was strangled.

Both Hayes and Komisarjevsky could end up on death row if convicted. Komisarjevsky's trial will follow Hayes' case.